Free Bill of Lading Form

The boxes most people ask about

Names, addresses, pieces and weight are plain enough. These are the boxes on a standard bill of lading that send people searching. For what every line means and why, see the bill of lading guide.

• SID and CID numbers. Your own reference (shipper ID) and your customer's (customer ID), such as a sales order and a purchase order number. Leave them blank if nobody asked for them.
• SCAC. The carrier's 2 to 4 letter code. The carrier gives it to you, or it is on its website.
• PRO number. The carrier's tracking number for the shipment. If your carrier puts a PRO sticker on the BOL at pickup, leave it blank.
• Seal number. For a full trailer you seal yourself. Write the number on the seal so the receiver can check it was not opened.
• FOB boxes. Tick the box at the place where the buyer takes ownership, if your sales terms say. FOB shipping point vs destination explains what each one means for who pays and who files a claim.
• Freight charge terms. Prepaid means the shipper pays the carrier. Collect means the receiver pays. Third party sends the bill to someone else, such as a broker, and needs their address.
• Pallet/slip. Used by retail receivers: was the order shipped on a pallet or a slip sheet.
• Master bill of lading. Tick it only when this BOL covers several other BOLs that travel with it, as in a consolidated load.

Class, weight and description: where a BOL costs money

An LTL carrier bills from the freight class, the weight and the description on the bill of lading. If they are wrong, it reweighs or inspects the freight and bills the difference, often with a fee on top. Work the class out from the real density with the freight class calculator before you fill in the Class column. Use a scale weight with the pallet included. And describe the goods in words that match their NMFC listing, not “general merchandise”. If you entered your shipment in one of our calculators first, this form picks up the class, pieces and weight for you.

Put every extra service in Special Instructions: a liftgate, a residential delivery, a call before delivery. Services the carrier only finds out about at the door are still billed, and the accessorial charges guide shows what each one costs.

Hazmat on the form

Tick Hazmat on any line that is a hazardous material, and the PDF puts an X in the H.M. column. That X is one of the three ways federal rules allow you to set hazmat apart from other freight on the same paper (49 CFR 172.201). Write the UN number, proper shipping name and hazard class in the description, and add a 24-hour emergency phone number, as 172.202 and 172.604 require.

Declared value and who counted the freight

Declared value. Carriers may limit what they pay on a claim to a value the shipper declares in writing (49 U.S.C. 14706). That is what the declared value line is for. Leave it blank unless you know your rate depends on it, because a low value can cap a claim at that amount.

Trailer loaded and freight counted. These boxes record who loaded the trailer and who counted the pieces. When the driver counts, the carrier has signed for that number. When only the shipper counted, a shortage at delivery is harder to prove against the carrier.

At pickup

• Print at least two copies: one for the driver and one you keep.
• Check the piece count on the BOL against what is going on the truck.
• Sign it, have the driver sign and date it, and keep your signed copy.

Still need a carrier? Use the freight quote builder to send two or three carriers the same shipment details you put on this form.